The Role of Schools in the English-language learner achievement gap.

Students designated as English language learners (ELL) tend to go to public schools with low standardized test scores. However, these low levels of assessed proficiency are not solely attributable to poor achievement by ELL students. These same schools report poor achievement by other major student groups as well, and have a set of characteristics associated generally with poor standardized test performance–such as high student-teacher ratios, high student enrollments and high levels of students who live in poverty or near poverty. When ELL students are not isolated in these low-achieving schools, their gap in test score results is considerably narrower.

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Other Resources

Fry, Richard. 2007. How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners? June. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.

Batalova, Jeanne, Michael Fix, and Julie Murray. 2007. Measures of Change: The Demography and Literacy of Adolescent English Learners. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.

Cosentino de Cohen, Clemencia, Nicole Deterding, and Beatriz Chu Clewell. 2005. Who’s Left Behind? Immigrant Children in High and Low LEP Schools. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.

Zehler, Annette M. and others. 2003. Policy Report: Summary of Findings Related to LEP and SPED-LEP Students. Report prepared by Development Associates, Inc. for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquistion, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OLEA), under Contract No. ED-00-CO-0089

Jepsen, Christopher and Shelley de Alth. 2005. English Learners in California Schools. San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California